


Dragons, swords and cakes  [Protostar]

by Shadowdianne



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-03 11:51:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15818319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/Shadowdianne
Summary: Baker full time, Regina Mills dreams with a stranger, a stranger with green eyes that she doesn't know who she is but tugs something inside of her.One night to decide, one dragon to defeat, a set of memories to recover. When the stranger appears and offers her and adventure there is very little she can do to say "no"





	Dragons, swords and cakes  [Protostar]

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Dragons, Swords, and Cakes [Art]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15746118) by [achromacat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/achromacat/pseuds/achromacat). 



> A/N I want to *not* thank this story to my router, who kept me away from internet and pretty much anything SQSN related for almost two months as I frantically tried to write this story.  
> However, I want to give my amazed acknowledgements to the people running the event. Even as I’m sure my emails could have been better at times I’m amazed of the sheer amount of work the manage to do every single time this event takes place. As always; I’m a firmly advocate that the SQ fandom is amazing and, as such, I’m really looking forward to see the creations of this edition.  
> I also want to thank my partner in crime. I arrived late, I was away for two months and I generally sucked on that, but her art caught my eye the first time I saw it and filled my mind with stories and dreams that I hope are just worthy enough of that idea and gorgeous vignettes she created. She is truly the star.  
> And, one last and final wave, to my pc who, bravely, managed to finish this story before crashing completely.  
> I’ll be at the comment section!

The city was calm, silent, and mostly dark with the exception of the dots coming from the orange-hued light of lampposts flanking each side of the streets, casting titillating shadows on every stray cat that happened to roam next to them. Late as it was, only ruffled papers and leaves floated around thanks to the tranquil breeze that run throughout the streets, nothing else disrupting the silence nor the sleep of those who, at the other side of dark or covered windows, rested.

The air, warm but not suffocating, suddenly sparkled however, as a distant echoing sound of bells touched the entrance of the city. A sound that no one got to hear as it became stronger, echoing and ricocheting while, in the same air and breeze, a figure started to form made of light-blue hued ribbons that writhed and solidified with each second it passed.

The hooves of a horse, muscles and tendons appearing just where thin air had been a second ago, were the first things real enough to touch the soil beneath them, the clip-clop rising and quietly gaining in strength as the bell-like sound disappeared. Knees came next as it did the barrel, its soft brown color gleaming under the moon and starts that were its only witnesses.

Forehead and muzzle beginning to form, the horse made a soft neigh that was quietly silenced by a hand, softly touching its chin as it formed, made by light and wind and creating the beginnings of pale fingertips and a coat: frilly white details on the edges of the sleeves and fitting until an elbow and then shoulder. The horse kept silent as its tail appeared, trying its four hooves against the road as everyone formed while the arm touching it let a chest clothed in the same material the arm was, as well as legs clothed in form-fitting pant and boots that, high and leather-made, stirred the horse towards the city proper while firmly clasping the reigns of the horse, softly and gently.

The last thing it appeared was the woman’s head, green eyes blinking at the silver light above her as well at the golden hue of the lampposts that, once the blue-ribbons disappeared, regained its strength and color.

The stranger, who had a sword at her side, coat flowing from her shoulders, covering part of the horse’s behind, muttered one single word as, behind her, every trace of where had possibly been before, disappeared.

“Regina.”

* * *

 

A brunette opened her eyes, gasping as she looked at her phone, groaning at the alarm clock that had, ultimately, made her open her eyes. Strands of dreams still on her eyes, she brushed the bridge of her nose as she fought against a yawn, green irises flashing on her mind as did so. Shuddering, she stared at the window of her room, the one she had left closed the night before but was now slightly ajar. Shaking her head, muttering curses as she stood and approached it, she closed the old window shut and glancing at the narrow street above her, three stores down.

It was early, too early for children to be playing on the street or walking to school. It was early enough that, through the slight mist the formed sometimes on that part of the city as the sun began to rose, Regina’s mind conjured a figure that made her stumble: the figure of a blonde and a horse.

Sighing and shaking her head, she walked away from the window, entering the bathroom and already mentally preparing herself for the day ahead.

She drank her coffee while still picking the blouse she would wear. Everything seeming to cost her twice than normal as her mind went back and back again to the dream, until the dream itself began to evaporate with every sip of dark beverage and nothing was left of it except the green eyes that had made her gasp into her sleep. Sun beginning already to color her kitchen in warmer shades than it really was, Regina caressed the surface of her table and chuckled to herself. She had been sleeping close to nothing the week before, trying to put together the last batch of cakes and pastries she had been asked to made. The theme had been prince and princess, with a special flavor of Middle Ages she had been spending quiet a lot of time in putting it up together. A mysterious woman mounting a horse was the most natural dream to have after the craziness her life had been in the week before.

Leaving the cup on the sink and quickly fastening the buttons of her red blouse, she picked up her keys and gave a careful once over to her reflection at the mirror she had at the entrance of her home. “Presentable” She thought, running her hands through her tresses, slick and already dry after her morning shower.

She closed the door behind her, shoes echoing on the stairs as she walked past closed apartments from within the first sounds of families and couples beginning to raise accompanied her until she reached the main door of her building.

“Three spoons of sugar….” She muttered before opening and closing the door, narrowing her eyes and momentarily stopping her musings as she eyed the sun that gleamed between the tall buildings, taller than the building she lived in. Shaking her head, she continued, walking down the street and recipe back on her head. Off to work, she thought, like every other day.

* * *

 

She had been right on how the day had been hectic. Good weather brought with it children with wonder on their eyes as they begged to their parents for a pastry or a sweet. After delivering the batch she had finished last week spent the remaining of her day attending to ever other parent and group of teenagers who entered her shop, fingers ready to take a sweet.

That, she thought, memory of the dream she had had at the beginning of her day absolutely forgotten, was the reason why she had opened her shop after all, the memory of when fuzzy but her pride over it just as fresh as her first cake.

Sun beginning to settle just as she said goodbye to the last group of children, she turned towards the not so clean back of the shop, ganache and chocolate chips starting to melt. That, she thought, shoulders shagging, wasn’t that sweet of a reward for her working hours. Narrowing her eyes, she crossed her arms over her chest and cracked her neck. Time to work.

It was maybe her concentration, her tiredness, the promise of her apartment waiting for her once she finished with the shop or perhaps a mix of all those three things what kept her away from the main door so when she heard the chiming of the bell mounted atop the doorjamb she turned, startled.

“The shop is closed.” She said. Or, at least, she began to say as her eyes took on the figure in front of her, standing taller than her and with her hands deeply hidden on the back pockets of her tight jeans. The newcomers attire -albeit strange in a way Regina couldn’t quite place- wasn’t what rendered her speechless but the green eyes that focused at her, a warm glow burning on them.

Regina swallowed thickly, bits and pieces of her dream coming back to her, the horse, the portal, the woman’s voice calling for her. Shuddering and feeling a sudden buzz on the air around her, she glanced quickly at the street that could be seen at the other side of the store window. No horse or blue light stared back at her and, slightly peeved by her own reaction, she focused again on the blonde woman.

She was still looking at her, eyes focused on every move but some of the light on the back of her eyes had disappeared; taking a more natural glow inside the bright-lighted store.

“We are closed.” She managed to say, putting her hands down on the counter, staring at the woman and waiting for her to turn away. “But you can come tomorrow if you want.”

That last addition escaped her lips just as the newcomer shook her head, a small sad smile curving her lips.

“I like the name.” She finally spoke, the voice just a tad rougher than the one Regina hazily remembered to have been on her dream. Beneath the long coat she wore a simple grey tank top could be spotted and the fabric of it bunched and wrinkled as she changed nervously her weight from one foot to the other, hands still hidden inside her pockets. A hilt, suddenly, seemed to blink to existence on her waist but, as Regina focused again she saw that there was nothing there except the interior of the coat, that, parted, let her see boots and jeans, both weathered and worn.

“Thank you.” She said, realizing she hadn’t answered to the blonde’s words. _Apple’s delights_ wasn’t precisely the most intelligent name for someone who didn’t only work with apples but, at the time, she had liked the idea of the name. Something the blonde didn’t need to know.

Clearing her throat, she pointed outside with her chin, still unsure on what it was the strange feeling around and inside her; anticipation building on her chest with every new intake of breath.

“The shop is still…”

“I didn’t come for that.”

The blonde’s voice cut through her words and, for a second, a moment, as the blonde’s tone rose and settled, Regina felt worry. Worry of what was the thing the other woman wanted. Why had she entered into her establishment? A thief, her mind whispered, a robber. However, albeit strange, the other woman didn’t seem menacing, not in the way she stood, nervous and unsure.

Frowning, Regina decided to not let her scare her. She had seen far worse things after all, she thought. Even if she didn’t quite remember what those things could have been.

“Then what do you want?” She heard herself ask, voice stronger than what she would have thought herself capable of. The other woman chortled softly at that but kept gazing at her. Almost as if she was waiting for something.

Raising a brow, Regina waited for the other woman to speak, halfway wondering if she could call the cops if something went awry. Not that she liked the perspective, but she was beyond tired and her apartment called for her.

“I came for you.”

The admission, simple and soft, made Regina feel a chill on her bones as she took on the apparently normal demeanor of the blonde; the way she shrugged apologetically. A sword blinked once again, seeming to disappear the second Regina licked her lips, staring at it.

“I beg your pardon?” She muttered, grasping the edges of the counter and a trepidation beginning to grow on her chest. She didn’t want to show that, however and as such she feigned calmness; standing as tall as she was perfect pose from the drop of her shoulders to the way she kept her forearms close to her body, waiting for the other woman to make a move.

Which, eventually, the blonde made in the form of a sigh and her own hands going through her hair, parting it enough and bringing it up so her neck was exposed letting Regina see a small swan motif dangling there, the nickel that covered it as weathered as her dirty boots.

“I’ve never been good at delivering news.” The stranger said before raising her right hand in the air, eyes leaving Regina’s for a moment as she focused on it. “I, just… give me a second.”

Something around the blonde’s hand shifted, the air seeming to glisten for a second before reality itself ripped with a sound that made Regina jump as she felt the buzz she had felt before going stronger against her skin, a call that almost made her abandon the counter she had been standing behind. Almost but not quite.

However, as she watched, the ripping effect grew on strength until something, a soft light, started to emanate from the blonde’s fingers. Soft but pulsing, the light didn’t disappear as the woman moved her hand, tiny, wriggling crackling beams of light circling her forearm as she did so, the large and somewhat loose sleeves of her coat falling to her .

Feeling every ounce of breath leave her lungs, Regina stumbled backwards as Emma took a step towards her, light still on her hand. Crazy, the brunette thought, she must be going crazy.

“What…”

The blond cut her short once again, her green eyes searching Regina as the woman bit down on her bottom lip, trying her hardest to wake up from the strange dream she was sure she had fallen into, while cleaning for her shop.

“I know you don’t want to trust me but please let me explain.

Her voice was soft but the words that came out of her didn’t make any sense and Regina, unnerved, could only answer the first thing that appeared on her mind, a whisper that didn’t quite reach the blonde by the way she frowned and tilted her head, waiting for her to repeat it again. Which she did, as the light on the woman’s fingers disappeared.

“Magic doesn’t exist.”

That got a chuckle out of the stranger.

“I said something very similar once.” She explained, and Regina could almost superimpose her face with another; fury and worry etched there as she held her, pinned against a wall. Magic, she thought, wasn’t supposed to exist. Nor the image of the blonde blinking at her.

Groaning, the blonde pointed outside, at the roads and streets that Regina knew by heart. Currently empty, that alone made Regina shudder. Despite the tranquility of the neighbor that surrounded the shop no one on the streets wasn’t all that usual. Which, on itself, made her worry.

“You can’t remember how many years you’ve been here.” The blonde was saying, voice soft but stern as Regina turned to argue with her, realizing all of a sudden that she couldn’t. “Your memories are fuzzy whenever you try to think on them.”

Regina snapped her voice shut. It was true. Partially at least. She could remember herself entering her apartment for the first time, could remember the way she had dressed, how she had looked.

 _“Like a business-woman”_ Her mind provided, a look that she hadn’t kept as months passed. She, however, couldn’t remember who she had been, what she had been or why she had decided to move out of her original place. Whichever that was.

“ _I’m dreaming.”_ She thought and yet, some part of her, the one that still hadn’t had made her call the cops, wondered if the blonde woman was telling the truth. A partial one perhaps but the truth whatsoever.

Moving quickly, the aforementioned woman walked towards her, reaching for her hands from across the counter, the fabric of the sleeves rising once again and letting Regina see a small tattoo on her wrist, one that, all of a sudden, felt weirdly familiar to her. Almost as if something she had heard once, on a dream or a whisper that didn’t quite come back to her.

Unperturbed, the blonde reached for her hands before stopping altogether, voice and eyes harder now.

“There was a curse,” She began hands flattened against the counter, fingers grasping nothingness as the light seemed to wear out, absorbed by the Formica surface. “and you decided that you would became our fail safe and decided to take the price it asked.” At the idea of a price been asked Regina shuddered, sensing that it wasn’t quite money what the blonde referred to. Sadness overtaking the woman’s form, she spoke one final time, letting her words travel towards her as she hunched her shoulders, her figure titillating once more. Almost as if she herself, was about to disappear. It didn’t happen but the buzz on her skin got stronger than ever as she stared at the space between them, not knowing what to say. “It’s been… well, difficult.”

Regina swallowed and stared at the newcomer’s form. Perhaps, a voice on her mind, perhaps…

“I can’t believe you, Miss…”

That alone elicited another suffocated chortle from the blonde as she looked back up, her green eyes shining again with something Regina suspected were unspent tears.

“Swan, Emma Swan.” The voice rolled off her tongue and made Regina hum. The name ringed a bell in a strange way; a name almost forgotten perhaps. One read on a book maybe, about to fall asleep.

Shaking her head and feeling the same trepidation hitting against her ribcage, she muttered her own name, the way the blonde’s lips curved upwards telling her that, maybe, Emma already was privy to that. Which, on itself left her with even more questions.

 “Look, let me show you something. If, at the end, you find that you don’t trust me I will be the first on letting you call the cops on me. Or walk away, whatever you prefer.”

Even if she didn’t trust her, or told herself she didn’t, there was a pull inside of her so she, reluctantly, thought back not on the words the blonde was uttering but what they could mean for her. For her whose only excitement was an apartment and a day as similar as any other they all blended together. Dull, she thought, but that was what she liked at the end. Didn’t she?

“If I promise to accompany you.” She finally began, carefully. “Do you promise me that you won’t kill me?”

Emma shed a smirk, the first cocky one she had seen on her.

“If I tell you “yes” will you trust me more than before? I could be lying to you.”

Regina narrowed her eyes at the answer but shrug her shoulders. There were a lot of dangers on a city like the one they both were in but despite the continuous proof that the woman in front of her wasn’t on her right mind, there was something there, sulking just below the surface, that made Regina want to believe.

“Lead the way.” She grumbled, picking her blazer and keys. Only a peek, she promised herself, clasping her phone with her other hand. A few minutes and once she saw that whatever information Emma had on her, she would be able to turn and walk away.

* * *

 

The ribbons that bit into the air on front of her, just in a shady corner of the city’s outskirts, weren’t blue like she had dreamt but golden. The mirror-like feeling they had if she tried to look into them for longer than a second enough to make her feel dizzy as she blinked, trying to understand what she was seeing.

Overgrown vines came out of the golden edges of the portal, apparently invisibles for the cars that, near the close-by highroad, kept on moving towards or away the city; their lights passing bubbles that sometimes illuminated Emma’s eyes as the blonde woman stared at her, expectantly.

“I’m dreaming.” Regina muttered to herself as she rose her right hand, feeling a sense of electricity running down her fingertips as she came closer to the gap beyond the ribbons, where the glazed image of a castle returned her gaze.

“It’s better if you don’t touch it.” Emma said, too late as Regina grazed the portal only to gasp as she felt it sucking her in, the force it made on her wrist strong enough to make her lost her footing for a second before she took a step back. Her hand being liberated the second she pulled backwards, she looked at both it and the sleeve of her blazer, half-expecting to them be glowing in the same ethereal light the portal emanated.

However, her hand seemed fine, no glow or heat coming out of it. The buzzing of electricity, however, seemed to now be coiling just beneath her skin, in a way that made stare at her wrist, half-waiting for her skin to break in a similar fashion Emma’s has done less than an hour before.

“You want me to cross with you.” She said, turning and glancing around, at the lampposts above the two of them: everything around her was normal, not a single thing out of the ordinary with the exception of the slowly pulsing portal and that woman who insisted she needed to trust her.

And a part of Regina found herself trusting her. A part she didn’t quite know where it came from as she licked her lips and realized they were parched. Skittish as she felt, there was something there, a story or a dream hidden in a portal that couldn’t truly exist and, as she thought that, she blinked again as the handle of the sword she had believed hung from the woman’s waist before returned once again, the silver handle glinting under the portal’s light.

“I won’t force you.” Emma was saying, looking beyond the portal, where the shadow of a horse could be seen, half obscured by the ripple between both realities. Regina felt her mind starting to reel. “I don’t want you to feel that you don’t have a choice. But yes; I want you to cross with me.”

There were many different reasons of why Regina felt that she needed to say yes and that alone made her tremble, trying to grasp into what wasn’t insane and taken out of a dream, a feverish hallucination perhaps.

“What’s at the other side?” She asked, and she felt very much like Alice, during the first trip the girl had taken, eyes and mind hurting as they tried to make out a response of a world that suddenly didn’t have any rules to speak off. For some reason, however, the implications of Wonderland made her feel a bittersweet taste on the back of her throat.

“Another realm.” Emma replied, muttering under her breath something Regina couldn’t quite hear but seemed to sound very close to “ _He would do this better.”_ “I honestly can’t explain you how this works. You were the one who knew how it did.”

Regina laughed at that, at the notion of her knowing anything about the pulsing hole in front of her. A vine seemed to come closer to her feet and yelped, only for the thing to halt and coil around itself, almost as if waiting, as she casted one worried glance towards the blonde woman. Hands not on her pockets anymore but falling limply at her side, the blonde seemed tired to Regina for the first time; the dark half-moons under her eyes a dark shadow that emaciated her face, making it look, suddenly, older than she had initially seemed.

Sighing, Regina pointed at the portal, her other hand resting on her hip as she did so. She had very little power now and she was sure she was about to either wake up or discover she had really eaten far too many sugar but if there was a decision she could make she wanted to see how that would she brought to.

“Promise me you won’t sell my organs.” She said, eliciting a snort from the blonde and a shake of head that got every luscious long blonde lock hitting the woman’s shoulder, creating a small flurry.

“I promise I won’t reach and pluck out any organ from you.”

Regina narrowed her eyes momentarily at the way Emma’s smile quickly transformed into a cocky one, lopsided and curt in a way that made her suspect was some kind of information the other woman didn’t feel like sharing it with her.

She didn’t truly have that much time to think, however, as the blonde reached for her hand with one quick movement, pointing towards the pulsing portal as vines began to writhe at the sound of bells that, now, felt louder than the ones she had heard on her dream.

“We are about to run out of time.” Emma admitted and yes, the edges of the portal began to shrink as soon as she finished talking, the narrow golden border beginning to consume the circle from where still a castle could be seen. Turning and already with one booted-feet close to that same edge, Emma turned, voice and eyes stern “Do you trust me?”

Regina turned and eyed the city in front of her, the few building she could make out from where she stood, the cars that still raced past seem, seemingly oblivious to what was happening. 

“Yes.” She muttered, taking a few steps towards the portal just as Emma’s entire figure began to glow, the edges of her figure beginning to become lighter and lighter until there was little to her torso except to the arm that still held Regina firmly in place.

Afraid and yet curious, the brunette took a final step inside, feeling, rather than seeing, the light coming from the edges of the portal coming even closer just as every atom of her body simply disappeared.

The quiet night on the outskirts of the White’s kingdom was broken as a portal opened and regurgitated two figures, the process not as slow as one of them had dreamt about nor as graceful. Coughing as the portal swirled on itself and disappeared, Regina looked back with wobbly knees and trembling hands as a sudden charge seemed to run past her, making her reach blindly for Emma’s hand before remembering she still was clasping the woman’s forearm with her right hand.

The blonde, less shaken, was merely looking at the castle that, gleaming white and silver under the rising moon, seemed to be the only thing welcoming them to what Regina was still sure it needed to be a dream.

“I thought I had left him near.” She muttered under her breath, letting go Regina’s hand and kneeling in front of a patch of grass as interesting or as different as the others around it.

“Wh… what?” Regina’s voice came out wobblier than intended but Emma didn’t seem to mind as, with a smile that oozed satisfaction, she stared at a point near the tress that grew at both sides of the road the two of them had appeared on, the moss and pebbles that covered it making it seem like not many people tended to use it.

Munching peacefully, a small brown horse approached them, reigns already on it. Bopping her head against Emma’s hand as the blonde hold it up, Regina nodded as she swallowed thickly. Another thing that made her suspect -or maybe hope- that she was merely still dreaming.

“There you are.” Emma chuckled and grasped the reigns of the horse, turning back to Regina and offering her hand once again. “Come on, we can ride there.”

“To the castle?” Regina’s incredulous tone made Emma chuckle, seemingly amused. Feeling the same wave of electricity than later, Regina clenched her hands. She was just a baker, she thought, and she loathed fantasy-related books. She didn’t know what kind of reason there must be for her mind to conjure up such complicated dream but every second it passed she felt more and more at loss.

Humming at her for the briefest of seconds, Emma nodded and pointed to the castle with the hand that still hold the leather-looking reigns.

“It’s a close ride. I won’t drop you, I promise.”

Her words felt stilted suddenly, a story behind there that made Regina shake her own head as she took on how, finally, the sword that had been blinking out of sight every time she tried to take a look at it, seemed to be permanently attached to the blonde’s waist now.

Following her gaze, Emma hummed, clutching the hilt of the sword with one nervous hand.

“You also taught me this. I never understood how it worked though.”

“I don’t know why you keep repeating I taught you all of this.” Regina replied, taking the offered hand once more and gingerly jumping towards the horse’s saddle in a way she wasn’t entirely sure how she had done it.

“Because you knew it.” Emma replied, jumping up as well with less grace and picking the reigns of the horse with both hands as she steered it towards the castle, towers and turrets seemingly to reach towards them as they began to move. “Once upon a time.”

Regina seriously doubted but remained silent; head growing heavy as her body caught up with every chance she had already experienced.

* * *

 

The brunette baker came back to her senses just as the sound of the hooves of the horse turned from a gentle sound to a stronger one, the grass and the soil turned now into a pebbled street and the beginnings of what seemed to be a town. One, however, very different to the one they had just left. No cars driving, a few carts passed along them with small groups of people either moving out or in town. Most of those didn’t look at them both twice, tiredness and fear etched on their faces as they clasped several rusty sickles closer to them.

Regina saw daggers and a sword on those passing carts, but Emma didn’t comment on them until a steep slope appeared in front of them, small buildings of two floors at maximum flanking them both. Then, with a whisper directed at her, she told her how, even if they tried to protect everyone, not everyone could sit idly as harvests died.

“Protect?”

Emma, however, fell silent and Regina reveled on the softness of the coat the woman wore, arms holding her from behind. She hadn’t paid any much mind at first but now, however, as the slope continued, beginning to broaden and curve, she now saw the thick walls that surrounded not only the castle but the buildings as well, the wall glowing in the night as it zig-zagged through the valley the city was in, making it look like an almost alive and breathing creature.

Sighing, still thinking for how long she would be able to convince herself all was a dream, Regina focused on the main door of the castle just as the horse came to a halt, hands knuckles whiter as their hold the reigns tighter.

“Give me a second.” The blonde muttered, dismounting for the last few meterers that were between the horse and the castle proper. Regina didn’t say a thing but grasped the handle at the end of the saddle, carefully keeping her balance as Emma, with one cracking flourish of her fingers, made the coat she wore disappear and wrap itself around Regina, slightly hiding her from view.

Regina was about to argue but the blonde didn’t truly give her any options as she walked briskly towards the entrance, hand on the helm of her sword and long free locks quickly transforming into a ponytail with the aid of some sparks that made Regina skin buzz again not at all unpleasantly.

“ _Dreaming.”_ She thought. _“I’m just dreaming.”_

The blonde approached the two guards that, already falling asleep, were surveying the coming and going of the ones at the road. Both of them seemed to recognize her as they smiled at her, swords undrawn, but didn’t look at her until Emma seemed to whisper something to them, grave look on her eyes.

Then, eyes widening, the two of them quickly glanced at her and, even from the distance, Regina could make out the way one of them swallowed, nervous. Deciding she had had enough, she made the horse keep going, not really knowing how or when she had learnt to stir a house but the creature following her orders.

“I’ll let the Queen and King know.” One of the guards was saying but the time Regina approached. Emma didn’t look up from where she was looking at the other guard, but her profile was illuminated enough by the torches that hung at both sides of the castle wall that she could see a curve on her lips.

“No.” Emma glanced at the guard so quickly Regina suddenly felt worried for her neck. “Let them sleep. I will discuss this tomorrow morning.”

“They gave us very explicit orders, princess.”

The title didn’t really startle Regina, as she didn’t find that farfetched than the woman that had come to her was the princess of some strange castle. Not after the magic and the portal after all. Not missing the glance Emma gave her, however, she looked away, trying to seem immersed on her own thoughts. Something that didn’t quite worked if the low chuckle she heard coming from the blonde herself was something to go by.

When Emma spoke again, however, warmth was gone, and a chill seemed to run the street they were all in, a commanding undertone on her voice that made Regina narrow her eyes and tilt her head, something there tugging her memories, a straightly shaped dream she had once had.

“I don’t care about the orders. She is tired and so I am. We can talk…”

“Sorry.” The younger guard, the one who had been closer to come and talk to her after Emma had muttered that something to her, licked his lips and rolled his shoulders inside the slightly bigger than it should armor. “Today we had an attack by midafternoon. If there is something that can be done… they will want to know.”

Emma threw her hands up in the air and mumbled what felt a few curses under her breath, the smell of ozone suddenly growing exponentially as small and wriggling threads of power, began to travel up and down her arm again. Growling, the blonde took a step away as soon as the same young guard opened the door with the aid of the other, quietly slipping inside.

“I’m sorry about this.” Emma mumbled, looking at Regina and doing everything on her power to ignore the second guard. “I will try to make this quick, okay?”

Regina nodded, not knowing what else to expect. She had crossed a magical portal to a place that, apparently, was under attack and waited for her. What else could be worse?

* * *

 

She quickly discovered that the answer to that came in the form of quiet a lot of information being dumped on her as both Emma and herself were asked to enter inside the castle. Leaving the horse on the second patio, Regina dismounted as swiftly as she had mounted it. Which made her shiver as they were directed to a second door, more adorned than the first one but smaller as well.

Before Regina was able to ask for who was waiting for them, the second door burst open, letting go a disheveled couple judging by the matching clothes and rings on their fingers, and a sulking teenager that smiled warmly at Emma before turning back to her, pain writing itself on his features as soon as Regina returned his glance, completely blank.

If it wasn’t for the overwhelming sensation that she had stepped into a fairy tale land, Regina would have laughed at the couple. However, they didn’t really let her do that nor question the boy’s reaction.

“Regina!” The couple exclaimed, as they stood in front of her, happiness radiating of them.

Regina decided that she didn’t like them. Far too much noise.

“She doesn’t remember.” The boy said, arms crossed in a pose that seemed very much like Emma suddenly. He didn’t have her green eyes but something around them made her think of her companion, on the way she carried himself. “Does she?”

Emma sighed at her side and put her right hand up, waving it for a moment as, on her palm, a small vial appeared.

“I didn’t give it to her.” She said, glancing at Regina as the brunette cleared her throat as loudly as possible. “It didn’t feel right.”

The vial’s liquid was oily and dark, glittering on a color that Regina couldn’t really pinpoint as it continued to shimmer and change as she tried to discern what it was.

“A potion?” She heard herself ask, taking a step back. So far, the logic of being into a dream, of maybe being asleep, had been more than enough to, if not feel safe, at least feel comfortable with her blonde guide. Now, however, she felt betrayal. “You wanted to poison me?”

She saw how the couple glanced at each other as well as well as she heard the growl that came  from the teen as Emma waved the vial off, shaking her head at the same time.

“I didn’t.” She said briskly, pointedly glancing at the other woman in the room. “It was an… option. But I wasn’t going to use it.”

“Which means she still doesn’t know who she is.” The other woman added, looking at her with something close to hopelessness.

“I know who I am.” Regina replied, feeling once again like Alice, holding threads of stories that didn’t really go anywhere.

For a second, everyone fell silent as they stared at her until the boy nodded to Emma and took a step towards her, a smile too serious and grave for his years peeking through his lips.

“I’m Henry.” He said, glancing pointedly at Emma at her side, something else seeming about to escape even though it didn’t. “They are Snow and David.”

“Snow?” Regina looked from the teen to the couple in front of her, taking on the black hair and gentle -far too gentle perhaps- expression of the woman that still seemed completely focused on her and the fact Emma hadn’t decided on poisoning her. “As in Snow White?”

She heard the growl before she felt a gentle pressure on the lower side of her back.

“We are all tired.” Emma’s voice rose, clipped and tight. “We could go to sleep and speak of all of this tomorrow. If you want of course.”

Regina blinked. “I could go if I wanted?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

Emma shot a murderous look at both Snow and David before nodding once, not letting neither of them talk as she did so.

“If you want to I will bring you to the portal again. I promise that.”

Regina eyed the blonde. She wanted to trust her. Even if everything turned out to be a mere dream, another of the many she had had of the woman she had in front of her, even if by next morning she would be back to her apartment, on her bed, with this story already fading, she wanted to trust her.

“Deal.” She said, head high and, for a second, something on her voice slipped.

* * *

 

“Sorry for earlier.” Emma said as she opened the door of what apparently was going to her room for tonight. Stubborn, she had said both Snow and David goodnight before sending the guards that had approached them off. Henry, sighing, had returned to his own quarters, his eyes following Regina before giving a quick hug to the blonde.

Corridors already walked, Regina had seen already that many parts of the castle seemed to either be shut down or covered in dust, the actual wings of the impressive building mostly shut closed. Which was the reason why, as she entered the square room Emma was letting her in, she almost expected shadows and dust on its corners due to the both of them had needed to take several stairs in order to reach this high.

However, the place was pristine and, as Regina took on the mirror perched up at one side of the room, she felt a shiver running down her spine.

“My parents can be… overwhelming.” The blonde was saying, pointing downstairs. She looked even more tired than before and Regina blinked, belatedly realizing the meaning of Emma’s words.

“Those were your parents?”

Her voice dripped with doubt and Emma laughed a little at that, smile taut in a way Regina was quickly learning that meant there was something else there the other woman didn’t want to explain further. Narrowing her eyes, wondering how much she could demand from her, Regina crossed her arms in front of her chest and waited until the blonde shook her head, teeth peeking as she bite onto her bottom lip.

“It’s complicated.” Emma finally said, half-shrugging before pointing towards the bed that dominated the center of the room. “They won’t bother you though. I know… that everything can feel like a lot right now. You can sleep a little and ask me things tomorrow. But I’m not good at answering though.”

Regina eyed the blonde, there was a stillness there, her mind whispered to her, one she hadn’t seen before due to everything that had happened but there it was still; a way that made Regina think how much the blonde was actually editing out of herself.

_“Why do you care? It’s a dream.”_

“Why did they want me awake?” She stumbled over the last word, not really sure if that had been the actual plan. They, however, had looked accusatorily at Emma as the blonde showed the vial as well as the boy.

Her question elicited a small sigh from Emma who, indecorously, plopped down on her mattress, sword disappearing altogether. Without it and her coat, she was dressed in a more normal attire. For some reason, her mind supplied a red leather jacket, one that would fit the blonde’s torso.

Regina shook her head, feeling a wave of nausea taking over her. One she fought against as Emma pressed the palms of her hands on her eyes, taking a big gulp of air as she did so.

“I don’t care what they end up explaining you.” She finally spoke, taking her hands off her eyes. On the back of her irises, Regina saw the same glimmer she was beginning to suspect was linked to Emma’s magic and she found herself sitting close to the other woman, her own posture very different from the one she would have taken a few hours ago; more proper, less slouched.

Placing her own blazer between them, Regina waited for Emma to speak again. When the other woman did, however, she sounded pained: struggling to take every syllable out of her.

“This place runs on fairy tales.” She began, eyes lost on something Regina couldn’t see. “It’s just the way it works. Fate, Destiny, deals or prewritten prophecies make everyone a story character. One that must follow the script of something they really ignore. I don’t care what they tell you, Regina, just… You have the possibility of crossing back. Even now if you don’t want to stay.”

“If you were willing to do that why did you came for me?”

Emma remained silent for a long time, swallowing down a mirthless laughter as the silence stretched in front of them.

“You know” she said between whispers, “we didn’t really talk like this before. You would have…” Stopping herself, she cleared her throat before answering, finally, Regina’s question. “You deserve to have the chance. The possibility to choose.”

“You keep telling me this, but I don’t really know what do you want me to do.”

Emma stayed silent but stood, her hair loose again around her shoulders as she did so. For someone with no magical prowess as she kept on saying, whatever she kept on doing worked wonders.

“We will talk tomorrow, okay? And then, after that, you are free to decide what you want.”

Walking towards the door of the room, the blonde halted as Regina spoke, pieces of the puzzle slowly forming behind the brunette’s eyes.

“We were friends? When I was your Regina, I mean.”

This time, Emma’s laughter didn’t even try to hide the remorse that filtered through. One hand on the doorjamb of the door, the blonde looked away, magic crackling around her strong enough that Regina feared for the tapestries she had seen decorating the castle’s walls.

“It’s complicated.” She finally answered, lopsided smirk appearing. “Goodnight Regina.”

* * *

 

On dreams, one couldn’t fall asleep. That was the logic Regina was using as she moved back and forth through the room, the bed not really inviting as she kept on feeling nauseous beyond believe.

As soon as Emma had left the room, the wave of nausea had come back with full force, not really leaving her as she tried to make some sense on what she already knew which, if it was truly a dream, wasn’t really that much.

She had felt the pull towards the teen, his eyes searching hers in a way that had made her want to reach for his hand, promise him that she was the one who they wanted for. Whoever that was.

She was a baker after all. A one settled baker with no adventures, power or magic. The thought alone made her grit her teeth as another shudder run through her spine. Many more had already left her tired, and she pinched the bridge of her nose, gruntling at the vague pain on her bones as she moved.

A part of her wanted to find Emma. Ask her that the adventure was over. Another part of her, however, the one that made her blink as images of a leather-bound book kept on appearing on the back of her mind’s eye, wanted to stay. At least until the alarm rang.

Which couldn’t be too long from now after all. Tongue pressed against her closed teeth, she took a deep breath, glancing at the balcony that let her see the mismatched town at her feet as well as the undulating city wall. The forest’s edge, she noticed as she walked towards the balcony, hands grasping the stone structure that supported it, was closer than she had thought it would be. Perhaps, she wondered, she could go there alone and cross.

Abandoning the blonde, however, wasn’t something she looked forward to.

She shouldn’t trust a figment of her imagination like this, she told to herself, eyes starting to drop a little, still lost on the shadows the wall created around the buildings, not like she was doing.

A swooshing sound cut her musings short, however, as something blinked just beyond her reach. A figure she didn’t quite know what it was beginning to raise from the very same shadows she had been staring at until a few seconds ago. Trembling and solidifying with each passing second, hate-filled eyes was the first thing Regina saw as the first bells began to toll.

That and two leathery wings that rose above a head still forming, made of smoke and shadows that obscured almost completely the night’s sky.

A dragon.

A dragon that, wings flapping, began to raise above the darkness it caused, the first screams probably beginning to roll, too far from Regina to hear them as she took a step backwards, trembling and almost stumbling as she tried to put as much separation from the dragon as possible.

Something, she quickly found out, that it wasn’t as easier as the dragon kept on raising, mouth open and teeth and tongue just as black as its scales.

She felt the nagging of something at the back of her head, a warning or a secret from somewhere, someone else. Swallowing, she grasped the handle of the door and pulled thankful suddenly of Emma’s decision to put her there as the chaos, albeit could be heard through the stairs, wasn’t directly next to her. That, she thought as she moved swiftly, could help her.

If her imagination didn’t kill her first of course; a dragon was quite extreme. Even for her.

Closing the door behind her, she made a dash towards the stairs, nausea gone but the same buzzing than before pumping through her veins with every breath she took.

As she reached the stairs, she finally heard the first roar of the creature outside; powerful and ancient, the sound made her legs buckle for a second, making her grasp the wall next to her just as the sound of frantic steps rose on the aftermath of the roar. Steps, she realized, that came directly towards her.

She didn’t really have enough time to move as the teenager; Henry, came running through the stairs, eyes wild and a quill and a book firmly tucked beneath her left arm.

“Oh.” He breathed, coming to a halt and almost bumping into her. The stairs were still lit with the aid of torched that crackled at both sides and, thanks to it, she saw a passing tide of relief that flooded his face before they returned to the careful disposition she had seen on him a few hours before. “Emma asked me to come for you.”

“For me?” Regina felt her chest heaving as she took on the boy’s in front of her, a sudden desire of hugging him overtaking her. “Where is she?”

She felt worry beginning to creep through her spine, the buzzing becoming stronger as Henry pointed downstairs as another roar filled the space between the two of them.

“You were going to leave, weren’t you?” He whispered as it subsided once again. His face was a mask but, just as Emma, there was something that made Regina see right through it; disappointment, fear, loss. “To the portal.”

“I don’t know what else you want me to do.” Regina replied back, closing her eyes for a moment as a wave of sudden regret filled her. “I still don’t know why I’m here, why you all say that you know me or why…”

Another roar, this time closer, made the very stones tremble. The dragon was approaching.

“Because of that.” Henry replied, lips pursed into a line that made Regina think, all of a sudden on how eerily similar the boy’s mannerisms were to hers. “We have been having these attacks for months now. The fairies said that we lacked… that someone was needed.”

“And you thought of me? A simple baker?”

Henry chuckled at that, the rush that had filled him all but forgotten. He was almost as tall as she was, Regina thought, but the superimposed image her mind suddenly provided gave her another Henry, a shorter one, a younger one, staring at her first with love and then resentment. One that made her shiver.

“You are not a simple baker.” He began. “And you know that.”

“I am.” Bite back Regina and she took a step backwards. Henry, however, shook his head and pointed beyond the walls that protected them, towards the dragon that, surely, was already circling the castle.

“You aren’t. That’s precisely how mo… how Emma found you. We needed some time, some hexes, some spells, but we found you precisely for who you are. You can’t go.”

He looked scared despite the anger at his voice and Regina growled under her breath, feeling not only guilty but doubtful for a second. If she wasn’t dreaming, if anything of this was real… where that would put her?

Shaking her head, she thought back on her apartment, on the one that felt fuzzier with every passing second.

Henry sighed as yet another roar surged from above.

“You saved us.” He began, fingers fiddling with the spine of his book. “You took a curse for us. Told us that by sending us here we would be safe. And you paid your memories in exchange for it.”

Regina shook her head, they were far too far from the actual battle, but she momentarily lost her footing as something, an echo, called for her. Henry, who had been staring intently at her, widened his eyes, taking a step closer as the buzzing sensation raised yet again.

“You know I’m telling the truth.” He whispered. “You can’t go, we need you.”

“I’m not the one you are looking for.”

“Emma said that once.”

That made Regina halt, the name of the blonde rooting her to the spot.

“I came to her once.” The boy began, opening the book he had and showing an intricately detailed drawing on one page. It was Emma, Regina realized, opening the door of an apartment not so different from hers. “She didn’t believe me but brought me back to where we lived. Where you lived. She stayed.”

“You can’t expect…”

“But you do, you believe in me. And I need you to believe on yourself because Emma is down there, battling against that thing and she needs your help.”

Regina bit down on her bottom lip, fingers curling at her sides as the boy’s words sliced her open. There was an image, she thought, an image of something that had happened a long time ago, or maybe not at all. A moment when Emma had been in front of her, smiling shyly, hands on back pockets, as Regina had made a question. A question…

The image was gone but it made Regina tremble as she stared down at her feet, feeling all of a sudden wrong on the clothes she wore, not quite like hers anymore.

“She missed you.” Henry whispered, bottom lip quivering. “She didn’t want me to tell you this, but she did. That’s why the fairies say that we can’t do this without you. You always worked together.”

The buzzing was beginning to deafen her, growing stronger as she felt a ripple of something breaking her skin, a thought slicing through her mind as screams filled the stairs, raising from above.

“You know I’m telling the truth.” The boy said one final time, stepping aside, book closed yet again. “Believe me.”

Silently, Regina moved forward, casting one look towards the boy before nodding, non-committal.

She couldn’t trust a dream, she thought, smiling sadly at the boy before she run down. She shouldn’t.

* * *

 

By the time Regina reached the patio, the sky was dark with ash and fire, every star simply gone. Groups of guards were moving from side to side, colliding sometimes as they fought to keep the figure of the dragon, currently perched atop the castle wall, away from them.

One soldier jumped out of a self-made barricade as another pushed a third as a blast of fire and acid came down from the dragon’s snoot. Jumping aside and coughing as the sulfuric scent reached her nostrils, Regina saw the three of them being consumed by the fire, not a speck left of them.

Chaos had decidedly erupted and, for a moment, she thought back on Henry, the teenager who, probably, was still up that tower, waiting for her to trust a figment of her own imagination. Shivering, she glanced around as more guards rushed over, bows being fired as the dragon’s shadowed form rose and fell, her wings cutting open through the air.

“Move!” One of them screamed at her, indecorously pushing her backwards, towards the intricately decorated doors. Stumbling, Regina looked away from the guard the second they went towards the door, the smell of fire and charred wood reaching her just as they did.

_Leave_

The voice on her head kept on prodding her but Regina remained rooted to the spot, a part of her searching Emma among the chaos. The blonde wasn’t at the patio, her figure nowhere to be seen but there was something, far stronger than her fear, that kept searching. A calling, a warning, that the blonde was there, somewhere.

And, just as the smoke cleared and the dragon rose, teeth pearly white and eyes as dark as its scales glancing directly at her, Regina saw the blonde, wielding her sword with one hand while sending crackling rivulets towards it, screaming as the guards parted, letting her lead them.

 _“She should be using another spell.”_ A voice inside of her muttered, a voice who had her same voice but a different ring. One that sounded familiar, far too familiar.

_“You know I’m telling the truth.”_

Finally able to move, Regina stared at the other woman, at the way she pushed her hand forward, thunderstorm on her eyes.

At the same time, the dragon attacked, and everything turned dark.

“Emma!” Regina heard her voice, felt the shout on her throat, but couldn’t remember or recall anything else as she rushed forward, hands first. “Move!”

She wasn’t going to reach her in time, she thought. But she couldn’t simply leave, not again.

Not when she had already left her once.

There was a shift as Regina collided with what she hoped to be Emma’s back, the buzzing inside of her finally exploding in a myriad of purple sparks. Running up and down her arm, she could feel them biting into her skin just as a wave of dirty white overcame her, hugged her, as another beam exploded just behind her eyes.

* * *

 

_“There must be another way.”_

_Regina laughed sadly at Emma’s words, looking at the woman before looking down at the parchment that she held, elvish words staring back at her._

_“You know there is not, Emma.”_

_“I will find you.”_

_Regina let herself roll her eyes at the stubbornness glinting on Emma’s eyes as her magic began to overcome her._

_“I thought you said to me we wouldn’t be your parents, dear.”_

_“But I will.”_

* * *

 

Regina opened her eyes, blinking dazedly as she took on her surroundings. High ceilings and darkened corners, she didn’t need long before recognizing the bedroom she was in.

“Emma” She mumbled through heavy teeth, tongue slow on her dried throat.

She heard the scrambling before being able to focus the green eyes that stared back at her, the fresh relief of the blonde’s hand on her enough to make her attempt a smile.

“You know.” The blonde said, tired smile and already healing wounds around her cheeks. “You aren’t bad as a sorcerer, for, you know, being a baker.”

Intertwining her fingers with Emma, Regina gave out a pained huff. She must be spent.

“And you aren’t the best delivering news dear. Magic? I almost had a heart attack.”

Emma’s laughter filled the room as Regina sat, hissing as she felt her neck protest.

“So, you remember.”

Glancing down, Regina looked at their hands, at the way her magic, finally awaken, rush through her fingers, crackling against Emma’s in a faint hum.

“I guess throwing a dragon into the mix was powerful enough.” She mussed, looking back at the woman and smiling at the woman’s expression. “Sorry it took me so long.”

Emma shook her head.

“I told you, I was going to find you.”

And Regina truly hated those words, had hated them, but she remembered everything now, how she had had just enough time to write another page on a curse already casted once, as Pan’s magic circled the town, trying to keep everyone safe.

She, however, hated the lost time, the time she had spent dreaming and wishing and not once truly knowing why. She had gone in order to keep them safe, to keep them alive and yet, as always, ink fell into a page, filling it with stories and prophecies long ago passed.

Perhaps that was it, she reasoned as she moved closer to the blonde, seeing how her lips parted, hair soft under her fingertips. Perhaps she shouldn’t have left in the first place. Perhaps she should have just stayed and see Emma re-discover the Enchanted Forest, savior title stale and not all fitting but hers to finally take and shape. Perhaps, she should have just kept close to her, to Henry.

“Is Henry okay?” She asked, the thought sudden and urgent. She still could see the look on his face as she had run downstairs, arms clutching his book, his quill.

“He is.” Emma muttered. “A little disappointed he missed the moment you froze that dragon in mid-air though.”

At that, Regina couldn’t do anything but to laugh, the sound being cut short by Emma as she caressed her cheek, slowly, asking for a permission the brunette didn’t feel like it was needed to be asked.

They had been at the brink of something before she had left, an almost, a perhaps. It was time to fix that.

Grasping tightly the blonde’s shirt, she pushed her upper body until she was flushed against her, fingers tingling where their powers mixed, shooting thousands of sparks around them, circling the two of them.  And no, she thought, cocky smirk parting her lips, it wasn’t perfect, but it was theirs.

She kissed the blonde with everything she had, not once trying to be soft but demanding as purple tinted her pupils, calling for Emma’s power as she pushed the woman atop her, making her answer as she deepened the kiss. An almost, a perhaps, a maybe.

“I’ve missed you.” She whispered before kissing her once again, tender this time, more careful, as Emma breathed heavily, hands at both sides of her head, grasping and wrinkling the sheets. “In a way.” She added with a laugh.

“Next time I won’t use a dragon then.” Emma replied before kissing her again.

Next time, Regina thought, as if she was going to leave again.

-.-

_“Regina?”_

_“Uhm?”_

_“Do you still remember some recipes?”_

_“Shh, I’m trying to sleep._ ”


End file.
